I got to the allotment to find a lot of bees flying round a particular spot in the hedge. So I had a look, and sure enough, there was a small swarm in there. There was about a pint or so of bees, so it was almost certainly a cast rather tha a prime swarm. A cast is a secondary swarm; the old queen leaves with about half the bees in the hive, called a prime swarm. These will often build up and give a honey crop, if they're early enough. Before the swarm leaves, they'll start a series of queen cells, and in the swarmier strains, some of these will then leave with small swarms which have almost no chance of establishing themselves in the wild.
They certainly won't give any honey the first year, hence the saying that 'A swarm of bees in July isn't worth a fly'. But they can be hived, requeened, and build up to form a decent colony the second year. So I strated making up frames to give them somewhere to live. By the time I'd finished, the wretched things had flown! Never mind, I was going to use splits to populate my empty hives after the honey flow anyway.
Bad luck Robert :)
It doesn't matter as I have other ways of populating my empty hives! I'm just going top split a couple after the honey harvest.
we've been using a horsley board at college, and a snelgrove. interesting, but not as easy as a 'split'.
( a good day at the royal norfolk show yesterday, helped out on the norfolk beekeepers stand for a couple of hours, VERY busy, a lot of interest in bees this year!)
I've been using a Snelgrove board for the first time this year, to raise queens rather than to control swarming. I've discovered that the thing to watch with a strong colony is that the lower broodnest has plenty of space.
A couple of weeks ago I Snelgroved a very strong colony, and today, while I was splitting the queen cells between that and another colony, I decided to look at the lower part just in case. Just as well I did!
Both the broodbox and the single super were packed with honey, and they were as crowded with bees as I've ever seen a hive. There are half a dozen sealed cells, but there was also a normal quantity of eggs. I didn't look for the queen, as they were in a seriously nasty mood, but I think she was probably still there. If a swarm had left, there would have been less bees, and a queen which is about to swarm doesn't normally lay many eggs. The cells were in the middle of the broodnest, and looked more like supersedure than swarm cells, but the crowding couple easily have tipped them over into swarming. The queen's due for squashing as soon as I've got a laying queen upstairs, so I just broke down the cells and left them as they were, but with a super of foundation, and three frames of foundation in the broodnest. I've taken the original super with all its bees upstairs to ease the crowding a bit.
The horsely sketch at cololege failed. the queen probably didn't return from mating flight.? There were no more than a few hundred bees in the top brood box.
Yes, the brood box and super was so full of bees that they were all hanging out , all over the brood chamber. We took out the board, shook off the bees from the top brood chamber, and added another super. There were 3 sealed queen cells in the lower brood box which we removed.
Next time I'm either going to use a less prolific colony or give more supers, or both. I worry about having such a massive pile of boxes, but I probably don't need to.
one of the hives at college had 5 supers on it earlier in the year (the extractor motor burnt out after 15 years service) and paul reckons the best place to store supers is on the hive!! ;)
I must say that if I had a more secure place of keeping Hives I would certainly look into the prospect of Bee Keeping(could I keep bees in my 30'x25' back garden), but I do enjoy the posts what you chaps post on apiary, :)
my hives are in my back garden, you could keep a couple at home in your garden, I'll post a piccy later ;)
TB,
Cheers that will get up the nose of my next door neighbour she don't even like frogs, but just down the road from me is an old Polish chap that sold honey from his front gate I just wonder does he still have his hives? I will have to ask him ;D
view from the kitchen window,
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Tony,
When you keep bee's in the proximity of your house are you likely to get stung Mrs Smith is worried about this, :)
if you get good - tempered, local bees, and give them plenty of room in the box ( I recommend a large brood box) you should be fine with the bees. they usually fly straight out my garden, high over the surrounding trees / houses. there's a small area in front of the hives we don't usually walk through. You might get stung, but the chances are very small.The risk ain't any different if they kept within 3 miles of your garden. they are bees, not wasps, and are reactive, not aggressive insects. Contact your local beekeeping club / organisation. they very helpful, informative folk, who usually offer a 'mentoring' sketch as well. Go to one of their 'open days' or similar type event thingy. ( and borrow Ted Hooper's Book 'guide to bees and honey' ) from the library ;)
TB,
Thanks for the helpful advice, :)
Lots of people keep bees in the garden without getting stung. Face them into a six foot fence or hedge, and that pushes them up above head height so they're not interacting with people. Then make sure you get good tempered bees so you don't get the guard bees buzzing you. The local BKA should be able to help.